George Orwell - Animal Farm

Synopsis

Once farm animals decide to rebel against the rule and oppression they have endured at the hands of humans, Manor Farm becomes Animal Farm – an equal society for all animals that is devoid of humans and their tyranny. At Animal Farm, no animal is left hungry, overworked and has the fruits of their labour taken from them in exchange for profits. All the animals can live together in peace and harmony with equality for all. But even in such a society, surely there must be one who will rise above the others to lead all to that perfect peace? How else will equality be enforced?

Likes

The concept of the Animal Farm is reflective of an ideal society that many of us desire. Orwell takes this and forces the reader to face the reality that such a society is unattainable. As we laugh at some of the animals and their behaviours, we are really laughing at ourselves as we realise that a society that is equal in every way sounds great in theory but falls short in practice. Despite it being a short novel, Orwell still manages to share many thought-provoking concepts throughout

As selfishness arises from some members of the Animal Farm, the rest of the animals find themselves serving the interests of those with more power, knowledge and capabilities than their own. Despite the initial altruistic intentions behind starting the Animal Farm, the personal desires of some prevented those intentions from being realised, further reflecting our own selfish aspirations and wants to get ahead. Orwell effectively demonstrates this by initially establishing the Farm as a democratic society where everyone gets a vote and the majority rules before it transitions into a dictatorship led by a self-regarding despot

Despite Animal Farm holding a mirror to its readers, we are still reading about farm animals. Through his effective use of linguistic features such as personification and anthropomorphism, the reader can relate to some of the animals while never forgetting that they are just that - animals. As a result, Orwell causes the reader to familiarise ourselves with them due to their human characteristics while also being unfamiliar because of their inherent animalistic traits. By the end of the novel readers feel attached to the Animal Farm due to our common interest in an equal society, but also detached for they are farm animals, allowing us to continue believing in our dreams of an equal society

Dislikes

While the book is a short read, it still lacked depth. For example, Orwell sheds light on the unlikelihood of an equal society because when it comes down to it, people don’t actually want to be like one another. We want to be special. Although this point is executed through Napoleon and his drive to the top, the position throughout the book was Napoleon vs The Animal Farm. None of the other animals aside from Snowball seemed to disagree much with Napoleon. Although this could be the consequence of the animals being used to being led, it was surprising that none banded together to force Napoleon to renounce his position, or better yet, throw him out of the Animal Farm. It was disappointing to hear a lack of voices, objections and disagreements but I acknowledge that there would have been fear in doing so

Adding onto the previous point, it appeared that only Napoleon wanted to be different. Based on my own experiences in society, everybody wants to stand out in some way which Animal Farm failed to imitate. Although the novel is short, there was room for further penetration into the problems that would arise in the pursuit of an equal society

There were times where the reaction to a situation didn’t make very much sense. For example, after Snowball’s exile from the Animal Farm, the other animals seemed to immediately accept the situation and move on. Despite Snowball clearly having the favour of most of the animals in achieving the society they all wanted, none pursued him in leaving and life went on with little outcry, disapproval, rage or even concern. Furthermore, I would have liked to know what happened to Snowball after his exile as a war between Snowball and Napoleon seemed imminent, yet nothing of the sort occurred

General Thoughts

Although subtle, the animals adopted more human features with time, suggesting that we hate those we hate because we feel as though we will never be like them. Once there’s a chance we might, we start to imitate them in hopes of getting their attention. Consequently, we go from hating them to being like them to being one of them, causing us to become the very thing we disliked

Napoleon sucked. I could not believe that the other animals were incapable of thinking for themselves. Their lack of questioning what should be questioned and accepting what should be rejected bothered me greatly. They were all fools! The only one I could tolerate was Benjamin whose main priority was minding his own business. Although I wanted to like Clover as she was the most inquisitive and concerned about the future of the Animal Farm, she fell short. Very short. But I will give her the benefit of the doubt as her memory was poor so I can’t blame her too much for not enquiring about the occasional change of commandments. However, I’m baffled by the lack of interrogation Squealer received when he was practically caught in the act of changing the commandments! Unfortunately, this issue was swept under the rug like many others

Rating

I had read a lot of positive reviews about this book which encouraged me to purchase my own copy. Although I’m glad I did as I enjoyed the read, I felt that the story only scratched the surface and more areas and concepts could have been explored or elaborated on. Nonetheless, not everything can be captured in a book, especially in such a short one as this

Based on this, I would give this book a 3/5

Would I recommend?

Although I was disappointed by the lack of depth throughout, I still enjoyed the book and appreciated its thought-provoking nature. Additionally, the simplicity of the problems that arose encouraged extensive conversations on the practicality of an equal society. So yes, I would recommend this book and have already done so

Favourite Quotes

‘“Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. . . . Yet he is Lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself”’

‘ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS’